Smartphones are everywhere. Some studies have nearly three-quarters of all cell phone users in the U.S. are now using smartphones. In cities like San Francisco and New York, it’s become difficult to simply walk down the street without a near-collision with another pedestrian engrossed in his or her 4-inch screen.

Anecdotally, I personally observe rotten behavior and poor etiquette on a daily basis. Recently, a woman took up two seats on a train, with her ear buds on, completely oblivious to the fact that someone else might want to sit down, while the giant mobile office in her purse took up a seat next to her. She stared at her phone the entire ride.

I have nearly crashed into people on the street, who cannot look up because they have to get that email out — while they are walking. Distracted driving due to cell phones, and its deadly ramifications, was the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles in the New York Times in 2009.

Distracted walking can also be dangerous. Earlier this year, the results of a study at Ohio State University found that more than 1,500 pedestrians were treated in emergency rooms in 2010 across the U.S. for injuries related to using a cell phone while walking. That number doubled from 2005. Another study is in the works.

And more recently, smartphone users in San Francisco were so engrossed in their devices that they failed to witness a murder happening right in front of them. Last month, a 20-year-old San Francisco State University student, Justin Valdez, was killed while stepping off of a municipal railway train by a man who had taken the gun out several times in full view on the train before shooting him, including holding the gun to wipe his nose, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

After reviewing the video taken by a Muni surveillance camera earlier this month, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon told reporters “These weren’t concealed movements — the gun is very clear. These people are in very close proximity with him and nobody sees this. They’re just so engrossed, texting and reading and whatnot. They’re completely oblivious of their surroundings.”

Of course smartphones are useful. If anyone had perhaps seen the man with the gun in the Muni shooting, they could have either called 911 and/or taken a video or photo to record the incident, which does happen frequently. Everyone knows what it is like to leave your phone at home or at a restaurant and feel insecure or helpless without it.

Jack Nasar, the author of the Ohio State study, is an urban planning professor. He said he is worried about the ramifications of “your body is in one place and your head is somewhere else,”

“As an urban planner, I am worried about the nature of public places.” said Nasar who is a professor of city and regional planning. “Now you are in a public place, but you are not really in a public place. Maybe things will change, but that is sort of a fear.”

But the prevailing generalization about tech workers is that they are geeks who are notoriously shy and socially awkward. With smartphones, they can continue their isolation and remain engrossed in their devices while on public transit and walking down the street. Of course this generalization does not apply to everyone who works in tech, but San Franciscans who have lived here for many years — as opposed to those newly arrived who are seeking a fortune — would say that this stereotype frequently rings true. It seems that everyone in town is trying to build the next great app, in the hopes of becoming like Instagram, acquired by Facebook for $1 billion.

The giant buses that whisk tech workers on a daily basis to Google Inc.
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, Apple Inc.
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, and Yahoo Inc.
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from their hipster neighborhoods in San Francisco to the bland campuses of Silicon Valley only serve to perpetuate the theory that the tech industry is full of socially inept geeks who do not want to participate in society, increasing the growing local animosity against them. A friend who does not work in tech who got a ride on one corporate bus described them as deadly quiet, where talking is discouraged. Everyone stares at or types on their devices, ranging from smartphones, tablets to laptops. Not a surprise.

With every new technology there comes fear and mistrust. But in many ways, for all its positive uses, the smartphone has also become a menace. Perhaps a 12-step program for addiction to connected devices will be next.

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